Nonprofit Management Association

Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Nonprofit Alliance for Monroe County present:

Re-Tooling Your Nonprofit: Preparing for New Challenges in the Information Age

Learn from SPEA faculty and staff from the nation’s top-ranked nonprofit management program, and walk away with important tools that will help your nonprofit overcome 21st-century problems.

Topics include:

• Privacy and Confidentiality of Electronic Records: Laws and Best Practices for Nonprofits
• Recognizing and Countering Threats to Information Security
• Law in the New Frontier: The Limits of Online Charitable Solicitation
• Can I Delete that Tweet? Publicity Risks and Preparing a PR Plan for Nonprofits

When: Friday, October 26, 2012 from 9:00am-4:00pm

Location: Bloomington City Hall, 401 N. Morton St. For parking information, please visit: http://bloomington.in.gov/parksmart

Registration:

• Cost is $40 for professionals and $20 for students. Coffee, snacks, and lunch are included in the fee. (A limited number of scholarships are available to students on a first-come, first-served basis. An application will be sent to students who register at the link below). 
• To register, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/RegisterToolkit

For more information: Please send an e-mail to RegisterToolkit@gmail.com.

To download the .pdfs of the flyers, please click here.

This past Friday, the Nonprofit Alliance of Monroe County and Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) hosted the Nonprofit Toolkit, a one-day symposium comprised of lectures and activities from SPEA professors and distinguished alumni with a wide array of fund development expertise.  More than 50 students and community members attended this one-day symposium and were able to learn about such topics as fundraising feasibility, special events, capital campaigns, and philanthropy psychology.

Matt vandenBerg, Director of Development at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, started the day off with a presentation on “Feasibility Analysis.”  He emphasized the importance of feasibility studies and their ability to test financial objectives; identify and cultivate major leaders and donors; and assess perceptions of your organization.  Following this presentation, Charlotte Walker, Director of Development and Communications at Pets Alive, illustrated how nonprofits can make special events pay off and described some unique ideas that can help your event stand out.

After a delicious lunch, Erika Albert, Director of Development at the Monroe County YMCA, offered a presentation on “Successful Capital Campaigns in Tough Economic Times.”  She stressed the importance of understanding the different “faces of philanthropy” before beginning to steward donors.  In the midst of these presentations, Beth Gazley, Associate Professor at SPEA, facilitated an activity that had students and community members working together in small groups to discuss how fundraisers could collaborate to benefit the communities we serve. 

Finishing out the day, Jen Shang, Assistant Professor at SPEA, and Alvin Lyons, Visiting Lecturer at SPEA, presented on “Philanthropic Psychology” and “What is the Future of Fundraising?”, respectively.  Jen Shang highlighted the importance of understanding the different identities that donors possess and Alvin Lyons helped illustrate the common mistakes fundraisers make and how to avoid them. 

The Nonprofit Toolkit was an incredibly successful event and the response from both students and community members has been incredibly positive.  The Nonprofit Management Association looks forward to continuing to collaborate with Nonprofit Alliance of Monroe County and Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) to provide opportunities like this for students and community members in the future.

Alexandra Buck (Nonprofit Alliance Representative): I am a first year dual MPA - MA CLACS (Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies) student. I came to SPEA specifically for the Nonprofit concentration and am excited for this opportunity to get involved both with the NMA student organization and the community initiative of the Nonprofit Alliance. I am comfortable and experienced serving as a liaison between organizations, coordinating information, and strategizing collaboration. I believe strongly in the importance of contact between students and the community and the mission of sharing resources for the greater benefit. I will fulfill this position with the reliability, professionalism, dedication and enthusiasm for which I am known. Thank you.Patrick Hansen (Nonprofit Alliance Representative): I would be proud to represent the NMA at the Nonprofit Alliance. My areas of interest at SPEA are nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship. Before coming to SPEA, I managed a team of interactive consultants at Convio, a leading provider of fundraising and marketing software for nonprofits. I’ve worked with hundreds of non-profits from all over the country and would welcome the opportunity to put my experience to work for the NMA and the Nonprofit Alliance. Connie Laffin (Social Networking Chair): My name is Connie Laffin, and I am a first year MPA student studying Nonprofit Management. I would like to be NMA’s Social Networking Chair because I believe that my previous marketing, event-planning, and nonprofit experience would be an asset to this student organization. I would also really love to engage the SPEA graduate student community, particularly first year students, in NMA activities. In the past I have helped plan events for graduate programs, student organizations, and a number of nonprofits. I have done everything under the sun, from creating marketing materials and brochures to scheduling venues and food to coordinating auctions and raffles. With this experience and continued member feedback, I am positive that I would be an excellent Social Networking Chair! Michael Malik (Social Networking Chair): If I learned one thing as a newspaper reporter it is this — when people are energized and interested it is the opportune time for an organization to expand. Now is that time for NMA. With SPEA enrollment at a near record high NMA has a chance to increase its presence within SPEA. This is especially important to do during the first semester when students are looking for ways to get involved. Drawing on my experience from five years working as a newspaper reporter, I will be able to effectively and efficiently spread the message about NMA through electronic and social media. Not only has my experience in newspapers allowed me to learn what types of social events are successful, but more importantly how detailed planning and communication draws people to those events.

President, Sarah Townsend!

I am in my second year of the Masters of Public Administration program, focusing on nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship. Before school, I worked at the Center for Nonprofit Management in Nashville, TN, leading the professional training program for area nonprofit employees. My fiancé, Brett, is also getting his MBA at IU. Brett secured an investment banking internship in downtown Minneapolis this summer, and since we wanted to be in the same location for the summer, also, I spent the past few months interning at Social Venture Partners Minnesota. I love yoga and Pilates, so when I’m not at SPEA in class or studying, I’m usually enjoying a class at Vibe Yoga Studio or the HPER. The trails around town are also fun to hike/walk. Brett and I like to try new restaurants together, so that’s been fun. I also love going to Scholar’s Inn… the carrot muffins are amazing! 

EMAIL: saratowns@indiana.edu

Vice President, Katie Meier

I am a second year MPA candidate concentrating in Nonprofit Management. I graduated from Albion College with a major in Sociology and a minor in Political Science in 2010, and I am from East Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here in Indiana I volunteer regularly with People & Animal Learning Services (a therapeutic horseback riding facility) and am a Program Facilitator for Girl Scouts of Central Indiana. This past summer I interned at the Monroe County YMCA and worked for the Monroe County Parks and Recreation Department. Eventually I would like to be in charge of fundraising campaigns for a nonprofit. In my spare time, I enjoy running, horseback riding, being social, spending time with my family, traveling, and music.

EMAIL: khmeier@indiana.edu

Director of Programs, Leslie Abshier

Hi Everyone! My name is Leslie Abshier (formally Leslie Leonard) and I am your NMA Director of Programs! I am an MPA student concentrating in Nonprofit Management and working towards earning the Social Entrepreneurship Certificate as well. I interned in the Development and Community Relations Department at Options for Better Living in Bloomington during the summer of 2011. Options works with people who have a disability. I helped to plan their largest fundraising event, the Art of Chocolate, and launch a 30 year Birthday Celebration Campaign. I also wrote a business plan for them as they are looking to start a few money-making entities related to their mission to raise funds by means other than government grants, government payments, and private donations. I am passionate about seeing nonprofits become less reliant on government money and more collaborative within their communities, partnering with for-profit businesses and other nonprofits. Options is doing just that. I am highly active in my church (Genesis Church), leading the prayer team in their college ministry (Emanate) and a young newlyweds small group with my husband, Chris. I was recently married this past July! I LOVE football, it takes a higher priority in my life than it probably should :-) GO COLTS and GO HOOSIERS!! I also love children…Chris and I want to have a big family. I have a minor, but growing, addiction to Jiffy Treat ice cream. I am excited to be the NMA Director of Programs for 2011-2012 because I know how important it is to have outside the classroom opportunities to network, learn, ask questions and have fun with those who are interested in the nonprofit community as much as you and I are! 

EMAIL: leleonar@indiana.edu 

Treasurer, Shar Fish

Hi guys, I’m Shar Fish. I am a second-year MPA candidate concentrating in Nonprofit Management, Treasurer of the Nonprofit Management Association, Service Corps Fellow at Girls Inc., SPEA Ambassador, and a gardener, bicyclist, (very) amateur chef, vegetarian, cat owner, sister, daughter, bff, partner, and aunt. I wear a lot of hats. Between the time I earned my B.A. in Political Science at Kent State University and coming to SPEA, I worked for six years in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. I am especially interested in animal welfare and food policy issues. My summer internship was with the Indiana State Director of the Humane Society of the United States. It’s always a pleasure to meet new SPEONs, so feel free to come chat with me about any of the aforementioned issues. Especially NMA. It’s a top-notch organization to be involved with. 

EMAIL: shelfish@indiana.edu

Secretary, Jacquie Ackerman

Hi, I’m Jacqueline Ackerman, and I’m this year’s NMA Secretary.  I grew up in Haiti, where my parents still work in medical and educational aid.  I received my undergrad degree from Anderson University in Political Science and French, and decided to come to SPEA to help me accomplish my goal of working for an international NGO.  This summer I went back to Haiti to work for the Zafen program of Fonkoze, Haiti’s microlending bank.  Most of my work involved looking at how to provide credit and other assistance to small and medium businesses in Haiti.  I’m really looking forward to my second year at SPEA, and helping to coordinate some fun events and experiences for NMA members!

EMAIL: jacacker@indiana.edu

A good friend, whom I’d attended classes with as part of Cohort ‘E’ during our first semester at SPEA, worked in a SPEA office alongside a coworker who happened to be a former intern with the Indiana State Director of the Humane Society of the United States.  Over winter break, I had the opportunity to meet this former intern. It was through this connection that I was able to arrange an interview and thus secure my summer internship with Anne Sterling, Indiana State Director for the HSUS, the largest animal welfare-related nonprofit in the country.

My instruction in V540- Law and Public Policy with Professor Andrea Need provided me with an understanding of and helped to familiarize me with my first assignment as an intern. I examined a rule created by the Indiana Natural Resources Commission (INRC) to be enforced as law by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) that would allow existing fox and coyote pens/canned hunting facilities within the state to continue to operate, and then read and tallied public comments regarding the proposed rule.  In V502- Public Management I had selected to read a book on wildlife management on a nature preserve aimed at restoring woodlands and controlling certain wildlife, which discussed the realities of public meetings and complicated intricacies of creating the best public policy, as well as what constitutes effective (or poor) individual citizen lobbying, and how agenda are perceived from within and outside government agencies.

Since my first assignment I have collected information on multiple animal welfare organizations throughout Indiana in order to facilitate the communication that is so crucial in order to effectively organize and lobby. I will be attending the public hearing on the fox/coyote penning rule later this summer and plan to assist in teaching a targeted group of Indiana citizens how to effectively push for progressive change in state animal welfare policy.

Start searching early- aside from giving you more time to look, more flexibility, and less stress associated with fast-approaching deadlines, it also frees you up to focus more on coursework, ServiceCorps, and any student organizations you might be involved with. If your internship is unpaid (as mine was) and you find an internship by late March, you can apply to receive funding generated by the SPEA Auction and Gala. I found out after volunteering my services to the gala that students who do so are more likely to receive a scholarship.

My internship has reinforced the idea that “what you know” is important, but that “who you know” is key. Make connections and build relationships while you’re in SPEA. You will be able to naturally use them to advance your career goals and aspirations- that is why we’re here, after all.  And when you take general courses, do as much as you can to choose projects based on your personal interests; some of the information I’ve gained in the classroom at SPEA has readily applied to the work I’ve done in this internship; work that I would easily want to call a career.

This summer I’m an Executive Intern at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington, working alongside the Executive Director, Jeff Baldwin. I got this internship by calling several nonprofit organizations in the Fall, and setting up interviews with the Executive Directors. I also did a holiday toy drive with the Boys & Girls Club, which gave me a better window into their operations.

So far the internship is going great! My goal going into the internship was to learn more about the financial and operational sides of running a nonprofit, and I feel I’m hitting my goal not only through the day-to-day projects that I’m working on, but also the time Jeff Baldwin is giving me. The other day we sat down and I fired away what felt like a million questions about how they do strategic planning and what benchmarks they are using for evaluation. Jeff was open with me and shared a lot of documentation with me.

We just finished one of the biggest fundraisers of the year - their inaugural Club Heroes Golf Marathon at the Bloomington Country Club. Each player, or Hero, committed to raise $1500 or more and on June 27 they tried to play 100 holes of golf in one day. Donors either pledged flat amounts (like $50) or per-hole amounts (like $1 per hole). So the golfers were incentivized to play as many holes of golf as possible! Almost all the golfers went over 100 holes, and our role was to create an event that truly showed our appreciation and support for this classy event. It went so well, we hit our targets, and the day was so much fun (though really long!)

I highly recommend that anyone get involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington. There are opportunities to help with the kids in activities such as art projects or tutoring. There are also opportunities to help on the administrative side, such as the internship I am doing.

Hi!  I’m Jacqueline Ackerman, the NMA Secretary for 2011-2012, and I am writing from Port-au-Prince, Haiti where I am doing my internship this summer.  I am working for a project called Zafen, which is a part of the Fonkoze family.  Fonkoze is a microfinance organization that considers itself Haiti’s banker to the poor.  Zafen is a project on its nonprofit side that provides interest-free loans to small and medium businesses that are committed to either creating jobs or to some sort of community improvement activity (like building a school, etc.).

So, where do I come in?  Well, I do a lot of different things here.  The funds for the loans come from online donors that visit the Zafen website, so I work on translating and revising the information about each project into French and English. Additionally, the program has discovered that since small and medium businesses (SMBs) are defined differently depending on which country you are in, they need to develop a definition that makes sense for Haiti.  According to the US definition of an SMB, Haiti would only have a small handful of corporations that are actually large businesses!  So I have been working with other NGOs as well as the business community to develop an effective definition of a Haitian SMB, as well as putting together a catalog of Haitian SMBs that Zafen is working with in order to showcase some of the work that the program has accomplished.  That means I also get to travel to different areas of the country, some of which I have never seen.

Working in another country has been a challenge, but I am fortunate in that I grew up in Haiti until I was 17, so I have a pretty good grasp of the language and culture.  Some things still surprise me.  I was simultaneously thrilled and scared to death when a member of a farmers’ cooperative out in the middle of nowhere chopped open a coconut and offered it to me to drink.  I was so excited to feel accepted into this community and feel like I was a part of this project, since most of the time foreign workers have a hard time integrating into the Haitian community.  At the same time, my mind was going, “Oh please don’t let that machete have cholera germs on it because I am 95% sure it was not washed properly!”  I am working on my languages and soaking up information about all of the different groups that are here to work on Haiti’s recovery, since my ultimate goal is to end up back here after graduation working for an NGO.

I definitely miss some things about being in the States (electricity, consistent water, not spending half the day in traffic), but I am having a wonderful time so far.  It is hard to believe my time here is already halfway over!  I am really thrilled to have the opportunity to see how a nonprofit program works in a third world country and learn how I can eventually move into a career in a similar organization.

Internship:

* New Hope Family Shelter, Social Media Intern - Content Provider, Job ID 13194

Part-time position:

* Limestone Girls Club, Teen Program Coordinator, Job ID 13304

Check out IUCareers.com for more information about these opportunities, and stay tuned for future postings!

November 11 - Happy Hour! 5-8 pm at Nick’s English Hut!

November 28- Former Mayor Belsky will speak on Local Government and Nonprofit Partnerships in Times of Fiscal Stress at BLBU 111 from 7-9pm.